Helgeson is not the best lecturer in the world and makes occasional errors but is incredibly invested in what the material is about. The coursework is difficult but manageable, though more practice than just homework problems should be done to succeed.

The professor does things like pop quizzes and spot grades, and the homework makes this course very unpredictable. He also will get mad if you email him for help. He put a section of material that was not covered in the lecture or part of the assigned readings and stated that it was a section that we did not need to read but put on the exam anyways

120A is a behemoth of a class, fluid dynamics is often some of the most technically difficult math you will see in your coursework, so I know that Professor Helgeson did his best with an already confusing and hard subject. I appreciated that he was willing to meet me for extra tutoring, because I really struggled in exam-taking for this class.

120A Mid lectures at best. Easy midterm but impossible final worth 40%. One of the problems we never once did anything related on a HW so no practice. I stg he picks HW problems via throwing at a dartboard, not whats covered in lecture. So many errors in notes, HW solutions, even exam questions. I feel like I barely learned anything. Underwhelming

A professor who tries his best but falls short in more fields than he succeeds. Lectures are jam packed with material in too short of a time frame that it feels like he's just regurgitating discombobulated information at you with little to no coherency. Assignments do not align with lectures and textbook felt close to useless. Bad at emails.

I do sincerely think while he makes mistakes here and there, he is the best professor I have ever taken in UCSB so far and will be one of them by the graduation.